Tag Archives | Police State

The Seattle Police Department purchased a “mesh network” in February that will be used by emergency responders, which will be capable of tracking anyone with Wi-Fi enabled device.

The network is not yet turned on, according to Seattle Police, but once it is, it will be able to determine the IP address, device type, downloaded applications, current location, and historical location of any device that searches for a Wi-Fi signal. The network is capable of storing that information for the previous 1,000 times a particular device attempted to access a Wi-Fi signal.

Jamela Debelak, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU), is worried that police will use the network for more than just coordinating emergency responders; “Once these kinds of tools are in place, they don’t go away.”

The union representing airport screeners for the Transportation Security Administration says Friday’s fatal shooting of an agent at Los Angeles International Airport highlights the need for armed security officers at every airport checkpoint.

“Every local airport has its own security arrangement with local police to some type of contract security force,” said J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents the screeners. “There is no standardization throughout the country. Every airport operates differently. Obviously at L.A. there were a fair number of local police officers there.

Phoenix’s ABC15 reports on the forging ahead with new forms of corrupt policing:

Arpaio confirms to ABC15 he has a plan to use drones, if he can get them. While Arpaio didn’t specify exactly the types of drones he wants, at a Tuesday press conference, he said the models they’re eyeing are between $5,000 and $20,000, and he’d like them outfitted with cameras and infrared capabilities.

The first drone, if obtained, would circle or hover in the areas above Arpaio’s jails, he explained. “Surveillance regarding crime scenes and drugs, catching dope peddlers,” Arpaio described.

When asked about people’s privacy, Arpaio responded without hesitation. “Privacy in the jails? Privacy for criminals, privacy for those with drugs? They better watch out.”

As for the cost of the drones, Arpaio says the money would come mainly through drug seizure dollars. “Isn’t it great? It would be the criminals buying these to arrest more criminals,” said Arpaio.

This is how kids spend their days in school now – as suspects planted with drugs in simulated SWAT raids? Via Indiana’s Brazil Times:

An 11-year-old student was transported by ambulance to St. Vincent Clay Hospital for treatment for “minor injuries” sustained following a bite from a Brazil Police Department K-9 officer at the Red Ribbon Awareness week kick-off event.

According to the report, the officer and his K-9 partner, Max, as well as another K-9 team carried out a simulated raid of a party with actors in place to help “educate the Clay County fifth-graders on drug awareness.”

He added the juveniles in the scenario met with officers prior to the start and were asked to remain still when the dogs searched for narcotics. A very small amount of illegal drugs were hidden on one of the juveniles to show how the dogs can find even the smallest trace of an illegal substance.

A disturbing cellphone video shot recently in Philadelphia points to the nature of urban harassment by police under stop-and-frisk.
Officers stop two people walking on the sidewalk, initially telling them that it is for the crime of saying a friendly hello to another passerby – "In this city, you don't talk to strangers."
The men are then told that they are "under investigation” for involvement in a robbery. “I said we could’ve got a call, that somebody wearing the clothes you’re wearing just robbed somebody. That’s why we stopped you. Is that wrong of us?”
The officers go on to claim that the pedestrians had been jaywalking, threaten to "split [their heads] open", and accuse the two of "weakening the country" by "freeloading":

I’m guessing there are some prankster cops who are going to have a lot of fun using these. Missouri’s St. Joe Channel reports:

The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department has a new piece of equipment that’s aimed at keeping inmates in special situations from getting into disciplinary problems.

Stun-Cuffs are strapped to the ankle or the wrist. Deputies in Buchanan County can use a remote control to send a shock straight into an offender’s extremities, at a range of 100 yards.

Stun-Cuffs can send 80,000 volts straight into an arm or a leg; and all inmates who require them will be told just how powerful they are before they’re strapped on.

Capt. Hovey says there’s still a few bugs and kinks to work out before the technology can be fully implemented. He hopes to get that going as soon as possible. A taser that’s strapped on? He says that is all the more reason for inmates to mind their manners.

New York Magazine has an epic report on the secret unit built by the NYPD to infiltrate and monitor the city’s various communities for un-American sentiment:

The activities Kelly set in motion after 9/11 pushed deeply into the private lives of New Yorkers, surveilling Muslims in their mosques, their sporting fields, their businesses, their social clubs, even their homes in a way not seen in America since the FBI and CIA monitored antiwar activists during the Nixon administration.

Putting a CIA officer inside a police department was unprecedented. The CIA, by its very charter, was prohibited from having any “police, subpoena, or law enforcement powers or internal security functions.” But 9/11 had changed the equation.

To the extent Sanchez had an official title, it was the CIA director’s counter­terrorism liaison to the state of New York. In reality, he was Cohen’s personal CIA representative, with an office at the CIA station in Manhattan and another at NYPD.

Via the Huffington Post, the militarization of our police can be turned back, and Radley Balko explains how:

Today in America, SWAT teams are deployed about 100 to 150 times per day, or about 50,000 times per year – a dramatic increase from the 3,000 or so annual deployments in the early 1980s, or the few hundred in the 1970s. The vast majority of today’s deployments are to serve search warrants for drug crimes. The question is, how could the U.S. roll all of this back?

End the Drug War – Even decriminalization would take away many of the incentives to fight the drug war as if it were an actual war. Your average small town SWAT team would probably continue to exist, at least in the short term. But these teams are expensive to maintain, and without federal funding, it seems likely that many would eventually disband.

End The “Equitable Sharing” Civil Asset Forfeiture Program – Under civil asset forfeiture, police agencies can seize any piece of property – cash, cars, homes – that they can reasonably connect to criminal activity.

A small organic farm in South Arlington is demanding an apology from police who raided the property in early August. Officers raided the Garden of Eden, a 3.5-acre farm, searching for marijuana in the gardens, according to search warrants. Police did not any drugs.

Quinn Eaker, a resident, told NBC 5 that the six adults who live at the farm were handcuffed when SWAT officers from the Arlington Police Department came to their home with weapons drawn. According to a statement posted on the Garden of Eden’s website, the raid of the farm lasted for an estimated 10 hours.

Code compliance officers mowed the grass on the property and removed wild, cultivated plants including blackberries and okra. Eaker said that the plants police mistook to be marijuana were likely tomatoes: “They can’t even tell the difference between tomato plants and a marijuana drug cartel.”

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on–the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.… Read the rest